Amateur video posted on the internet on Saturday claims to show UN obervers being escorted around the al Khalidiya neighbourhood of Homs in Syria. When gunfire is heard, the observers are ushered into a doorway for safety.

A handful of monitors has been in the country for a week as an advance party while diplomats hammered out the mandate to send 300 monitors.

A spokesperson for the UN observer team to Syria, Neeraj Singh, said on Saturday that observers had completed a day long visit to the embattled city of Homs. He also confirmed that two members of the advance team were now deployed in Homs.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the Security Council's decision to authorise up to 300 unarmed military observers to monitor Syria's fragile cease-fire and urged the government and opposition to make their deployment possible.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon Credit: Reuters

"(Ban) calls upon the Government of Syria and other parties swiftly to create the conditions necessary for the deployment of the mission," his press office said in a statement.

"He stresses the need for the Government of Syria to end all violence and human rights violations, and in particular to stop the use of heavy weapons and to withdraw such weapons and armed units from population centres," the statement said.

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that authorises an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria for three months to monitor a fragile week-old ceasefire in a 13-month old conflict.

President Bashar al-Assad Credit: Reuters

The Russia-European drafted resolution said that deployment of U.N. observer mission, which will be called UNSMIS, will be "subject to assessment by the Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) of relevant developments on the ground, including the cessation of violence."

The council's resolution also noted that the cessation of violence by the government and opposition is "clearly incomplete."